"I used to be incredibly miserable," admits Leela Bunce, "but then I started laughing. It completely changed me."

It really was that simple for the professional clown, who brings her first solo show, Waiting For Stanley, to the Dugdale Centre this week.

Racked with back problems for most of her life, the 30-year-old went to a laughter yoga class in a last ditch attempt to get better. Transformed by the 'best medicine', it was at the session she met a clown teacher.

"It was so valuable, just laughing for no reason." she says. "And I was blown away too by how powerful clowning can be."

An in demand 'laughter consultant' by day, Leela is spreading the smiles by night with a poignant show about a woman waiting at a train station for her husband to return from World War Two.

When he doesn't arrive, her thoughts are filled with fears and fantasies as to what could have happened. Did he die on the frontline? Run off with a French floosie? Fall in love with another?

"We spoke to women who had lived during that time to get their stories," explains Leela, from Enfield-based theatre company Finger In The Pie. "The telling of that time is usually focused on the men, the politics and the battles, but it was such an important time for women too - it gives the female perspective."

The woman's anxious imaginings, intercut with flashbacks, take form with mime, puppetry and pathos, backed with evocative songs.

"The women of that time did so much. I wanted to get that across in the pace - I hardly stop for breath, it's quite relentless. It's tiring, but in a good way. I'm the only human on stage but the set comes alive around me."

For Leela, who also puts the comedy into cabaret shows as burlesque act Audacity Chutzpah, clowning was the perfect method to bring the stories to the stage.

"Language can be a mask sometimes. By not speaking, the clown is all about the emotion, there's a truthfullness to them. The show has the full spectrum, it's funny but touches on poignancy and tragedy.

"Clowns don't have a sense of time or space or character. You can jump from one thing to another and step out of the structure of the peice. A clown can get to the core of something and get away with being very honest."

Walking on in '40s dress, it's Leela's red nose gives away the forthcoming buffoonery.

"We tried it with and without. I think it gives people permission to go with me and get to the deeper stuff much quicker. You can dive straight into it and the audience will follow.

"It gives people permission to laugh, it creates that safety."

Given it's limited spoken script and universal themes, Leela and her team hope to take the show overseas.

"Although certain themes like rationing may not work everywhere, I think women, wherever they were from, had similar experiences.

"I'd love to take it around Europe and even America. I don't take myself too seriously but I do think big!"

Waiting For Stanley is at the Dugdale Centre, London Road, Enfield from November 9 to 12 at 8pm. Details: 020 8807 6680